


I Remember You

by eikichi



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Found Family, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Modern Era, Sibling Bonding, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:30:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25000147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eikichi/pseuds/eikichi
Summary: He feels eyes on him.After years of superhero-ing about, Dick Grayson has gotten pretty fucking good with his inuition.And as of right now, his intuition feels eyes boring into the back of his head. He turns around to look in the general direction. Nothing. His eyes travel up the building and lands on the roof. He sees a figure.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Dick Grayson/Roy Harper
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	I Remember You

He feels eyes on him.

After years of superhero-ing about, Dick Grayson has gotten pretty fucking good with his inuition.

And right now, his intuition feels eyes boring into the back of his head. He turns around to look in the general direction. Nothing. His eyes travel up the building and lands on the roof. He sees a figure. The figure tilts their head to the right. It waves tentatively, almost childlike. Dick waves back, hesitant at first but with more confidence later on in the interaction. The figure stops waving. They tilt their head to the left now. Their hand falls to their side. They walk away.

_That was. Fucking weird._

He just wanted some shitty street food in Bludhaven, but now Dick Grayson has discovered he may have a stalker. Excellent end to a shitty day.

Dick Grayson has been pursuing a doctorate in English - more specifically focusing in creative writing so he can teach the future novelists of the world. And to get high at work. And to avoid having to talk to cops all fucking day since Bruce was advocating for him to be a cop. In his pursuit of creative writing, Dick has been met with the two most common English professors. The stoners and the mean old bastards. He keeps unluckily drawing the latter, and his peers keep hating him for being a teacher’s pet with the former. And he has a shit ton to read and analyze that night. And now he has a stalker. And he still has to fight crime at the ungodly hours of the night because Bludhaven is most active at the _witching_ hour.

Dick resigns to take a bite of the hotdog he just bought from some street vendor. It tastes questionable. At this point he does not care.

While he’s on a roll he decides to call Kory to complain. Kory answers cheerfully.

He cuts her cheerfulness with one sentence, “SO! Guess who has a stalker~?”

“I’m sorry?” The feeling of how it is in the drive thru when you fuck up your order and the order taker does not understand what the hell you just said washes over him.

“It’s stalker time, Kory.”

“Do I need to come over?” A barely repressed concern is in that question.

“Nah, nah. It’s like. Weird.. I don't wanna sound conceited but-”

Kory laughs.

“Choke. Anyways, but I’ve had stalkers before. This one. My intuition says this one is different. Different intentions...?

“Perhaps you should stay at Titans tower tonight...?” The offer is tempting. However.

“I have a ten page essay on Paradise Lost to brainstorm and eventually change 40 times in the process,” sometimes he hates being a responsible student. Kory sighs in disappointment. The roll keeps going.

“Have fun with John Milton’s bullshit. If your instincts are wrong I better be the first you call or I will kill you,” she’s half kidding.

“Aww, how sweet thank you, Kory,” his fake sing-song voice makes her laugh. His heart melts.

He internally curses himself for the weird awkwardness that is the current stage of their relationship, “OK Dick, Gar is about to try to eat a doughnut with pimento cheese-”

“Run to your team and take hold of the idiots.”

“I don’t know how you did it sometimes.”

“Bullshitted my way through it. It’s the only way, Kory.”

“Honestly? You’re right. Bye Dicky!”

“Bye Kory, I still love ya,” there’s a sharp gasp on the other end. Dick’s heart hurts.

“I still love ya too.”

The line is quiet. The neon lights in Bludhaven begin to turn on, and the city truly comes to life in these moments. He watches it for a moment. Then his phone buzzes.

 **Bastard Father Man** : Richard...... How was school today?

_Go awaaaaaaaaay Bruce fucking WAYNE._

**Dick** : I have been assigned to analyze Paradise Lost for 10 pages.

 **Bastard Father Man** : Ah.... I send my regards....

 **Bastard Father Man** : ....

 **Bastard Father Man** : Do you have dinner...?

 **Dick** : I got a questionable hotdog from a street vendor.

 **Bastard Father Man** : .... Would you like dinner here?

 **Dick** : I’m fine. I have frozen dinners at home.

 **Bastard Father Man** : That’s not a good dinner, Dick..

 **Dick** : I bought it with my own money, so I will eat my own garbage; thank you very much for the offer, though.

 **Bastard Father Man** : It’s no problem for me. We should have dinner sometime. I can pick you up.

He deems the behavior odd. Off. But somewhat familiar. Dick looks at the calendar on his phone.

_Ah, Jason’s birthday is coming up.... Damn my kindness._

**Dick** : I’ll come over. I should be there in an hour.

 **Bastard Father Man** : Good.... Alfred will be glad to hear that. So will Tim.

Dinner is majorly awkward. Alfred, Bruce, and Dick sit there listening to Tim prattle on about random subjects because he is so desperately trying to fill in the horrifically awkward silence. Bruce will speak to Dick, Dick will answer simply. Silence creeps into every single person’s skin until Tim brings up some random fucking thing to talk about. They let him. The cycle repeats when Bruce interrupts with a question that he thought to ask Dick.

The food was good, at least. Beats a shitty lean cuisine that Dick doesn’t remember buying.

Bruce, he does this _thing_ to Dick. He puts a hand on his shoulder, half fatherly, half accusingly. This happens every time he’s about to leave the manor. One could set their watch by it.

“Richard,” he hates this tone, “Is something the matter?”

“I hate school and I fucked my personal life.”

“Besides the usual thing. Something happened. I can tell,” _Fuck off._

Dick deflects, per usual, “Bludhaven’s a piece of shit per usual,” Bruce frowns at him. Light blue eyes bore into. Dick feels uncomfortable. He changes the subject, “Do you wanna hang out on the 16th? Go to his grave then his favorite place.”

“Hm,” most usually cannot tell what he’s thinking with this look. Dick, over the years, has picked up the minuscule details in Bruce’s reserved expressions, though. He can see the slight grinding of teeth, the squint then relaxing of his eyes, the momentary flare of the nostrils. Contemplation, a hint of never ending sorrow, mulling of thoughts. Dick is glad he went to this dinner.

“Yes. Do you think Tim should attend?”

“No, not really. I love him, but it isn’t his place.”

“Your grief. It’s shared with so few,” Dick releases a breathy short laugh.

“Says you.”

“Exactly,” Bruce’s hand drops, “Goodnight. Good luck,” Dick nods.

“Goodnight,” he sighs, resigning himself to say it first once again, “I-”

“I love you. Stay safe,” it catches Dick off guard, he doesn’t care if he shows it. He knows Bruce saw it.

“Love you too.... Stay safe....”

Dick goes home to a penthouse apartment in Bludhaven. He considers it compensation for putting up with Bruce’s bullshit for years. He sets his keys on the coffee table, and chuckles at the dildo centerpiece Roy bought him as a housewarming gift. It’s a good reminder to give Roy a call. He does.

Roy is doing well, he sounds stronger than he used to. It comforts Dick.

“ _Day by day, day by day,_ ” Roy grasps onto the words like a prayer.

Dick responds, “Yes, yes. Live in the present.”

“ _Hypocrite,_ ” Roy sneers, and it hits Dick like an arrow to the heart.

“Visit this shitty hypocrite sometime. I still have your housewarming gift.”

“Aw, you kept it after all these years?”

“Well, of course. Even when you pissed me off.”

“Whoa,” Roy gasps as well. Understandably so. Dick’s rage makes every single reminder of a person disappear before his eyes, and due to his own wrath. It bit him in the ass multiple times.

No matter how angry Roy Harper made him, though, he could never throw away the beautiful “centerpiece”, “How honored do you feel?”

“I’m not feeding your fucking ego, fool.”

“Heh, damn. I was wanting some sweet sweet compliments from the gorgeous Roy Harper.”

“Flattery doesn’t get you anywhere. It just gets me aroused, hah,” Roy’s half joking.

The rest of the conversation goes well. He neglects, purposefully, to tell Roy about his new stalker. He avoids overwhelming Roy.

 _Day by day, day by day._ Roy’s voice echoes throughout his head.

Patrol goes as normally as it can go. Thieves, muggers, etc. Dick takes them all down in flamboyant fashion.

_However._

He feels the same eyes on him. He swears he does, but now when he looks in the direction he sees nothing. Occasionally he thinks he sees a figure quickly leaving. He thinks he’s getting paranoid like Bruce.

That is, until he’s in a particularly shitty fight. He’s tired, and there’s a lot of guys coming at him, but it’s nothing he can't handle.

His rhythm is thrown off when another player enters the arena. The player is a friend, though, not foe. They wield a metal bat. They nearly kill one of the bastards before Nightwing yells at them to stop. They do, metal bat mid swing. They turn to look at Nightwing.

“Have you been following me?”

The figure, now revealed to Nightwing, wears simple black pants, combat boots, a black leather jacket with a crimson sheen, a crimson hoodie underneath with the hood up, covering part of what seems to be a motorcycle helmet that is black with a crimson undertone. The helmet is more crimson than the leather jacket, though. He sees a couple of guns in a holster on both sides of their hips. He assumes there's more guns than that. They nod.

“Why?”

They start to use sign language, “ _Can you understand this, Nightwing?_ ”

Ah, must be mute, “I can,” Nightwing signs as he speaks this. He doesn’t want his new.... Friend? To feel alienated.

“ _Excellent. I was following you. You interest me._ ”

“Why is that?”

“ _I’m not sure._ ”

“Who are you?”

“ _I’m figuring that out._ ”

“Ok. Cryptic.” he hears a raspy laugh from the person. Nightwing smiles. A thought comes to mind and Nightwing announces it, “Do I know you?’

“ _I’m figuring that out._ ”

Nightwing scowls, “What? Do you have amnesia or something?”

“ _I don’t. Not really? I cannot explain it to you. Not to anyone. I must find things out myself._ ” they scratch the back of their neck.

“I, uh. Okay,” let’s add this to the long list of self discoveries Dick has aided in. Awkward silence creeps in through the atmosphere. It’s the same feeling he gets when he goes to those dinners at Wayne Manor.

He hears a sigh, “ _This is awkward. I must leave._ ”

“Wait, wait. What’s your name?” They don’t answer. The silence makes Dick want to crawl into a hole and die. They just stand there. Staring, “Can you at least tell me pronouns?”

“ _I am a dude._ ”

“Alright,” he looks around, contemplating, “What if I call you Ghost?”

The man jumps just a little. Odd reaction, “ _Why...._ ”

Dick replies simply, “You disappear and reappear like one.”

Another sigh from the man, “ _I.... guess I’ll accept that nickname. Bye._ ”

“ _Bye,_ ” and so he pulls out a grappling hook and hoists himself to a nearby rooftop. A dramatic exit. Nightwing approves of it.

Dick slips back into his apartment. He wonders what the hell he just experienced.

He sees a text from Roy.

 **Handsome Idiot** : dicky how was patrol. any freaks?

Dick stares at the text for a few minutes. He contemplates.

 **Dick** : roy im coming over

 **Handsome Idiot** : oh shit what happened

 **Dick** : oh my god i am CLEARLY coming over to TELL YOU

 **Handsome Idiot** : god dammit. now i need to put on pants. fuck the bludhaven freaks. but fuck me first :*

 **Dick** : dont tempt me

 **Handsome Idiot** : [waggles eyebrows]

The stupid text makes him laugh. Dick still sighs, though.

Something about Ghost. Something is making his anxiety spike every time his thoughts go back to the interaction. _Something._

Dick jumps onto his motorcycle, and makes his way to Roy’s apartment, which is conveniently also in Bludhaven. Roy decided Dick was the one he wanted to move closest to after going through rehab.

Dick gets off the bike. He texts Roy to announce his arrival ahead of time. Then he feels that feeling once again. Familiar. Disconcerting. Uncomfortable.

He feels eyes on him.

**Author's Note:**

> im! already in the process of writing ch2 so it should be posted sometime this weekend......... i hope yall enjoy this lol this is the first thing ive written in over a year bc of. things that happened last year so i hope its good..


End file.
